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Average Hospital Bills for Birth of New Baby?

CantStandYa

CantStandYa

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My wife and are were under the impression we had pretty decent coverage plans (through UHC and Aetna respectively), but we're starting to see out-of-pocket bills pile up following the birth of our son a few weeks ago. Between hospital bills and doctor charges, we're getting close to $3k OOP. Is this average? High? Low?

The rub is that neither of us met our deductibles, which are relatively low, prior to his birth (he's now on my plan), so that is a factor. I guess I just assumed we'd be looking at a few hundred bucks and insurance would cover the rest.

Thoughts?
 
I just made my wife go drug free and use a physician's assistant trainee from Keiser University to save money..Probably saved us 2 grand.
 
CantStandYa said:
My wife and are were under the impression we had pretty decent coverage plans (through UHC and Aetna respectively), but we're starting to see out-of-pocket bills pile up following the birth of our son a few weeks ago. Between hospital bills and doctor charges, we're getting close to $3k OOP. Is this average? High? Low?

The rub is that neither of us met our deductibles, which are relatively low, prior to his birth (he's now on my plan), so that is a factor. I guess I just assumed we'd be looking at a few hundred bucks and insurance would cover the rest.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

That sounds about right. Obviously, it depends on your deductible, but out of pocket for us was about $3-4k if starting from $0.

We had to pay our OB-GYN well before the delivery... 2 large payments that covered the entire process from 1st visit confirming pregnancy though childbirth. Settled up afterwards given adjustments due to hitting deductible.
 
CantStandYa said:
My wife and are were under the impression we had pretty decent coverage plans (through UHC and Aetna respectively), but we're starting to see out-of-pocket bills pile up following the birth of our son a few weeks ago. Between hospital bills and doctor charges, we're getting close to $3k OOP. Is this average? High? Low?

The rub is that neither of us met our deductibles, which are relatively low, prior to his birth (he's now on my plan), so that is a factor. I guess I just assumed we'd be looking at a few hundred bucks and insurance would cover the rest.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Extremely high for my family, plus a 90 day NICU stay, for twins. Hit our family OOP of around $7,000 fast with UHC. Set up with hospital to make 3 payments over 3 months, which they were fine with. But after the 7,000 Max OOP, we paid nothing, and i think the bills totaled around $91,000, after the hospital and insurance negotiated cheaper rates for the care. So we received a lot of care for $7,000. I don't know the solution, but if you ever get hit with something like that, not sure how to avoid it except to pay for a lot better plan in your premium per month.
 
CantStandYa said:
My wife and are were under the impression we had pretty decent coverage plans (through UHC and Aetna respectively), but we're starting to see out-of-pocket bills pile up following the birth of our son a few weeks ago. Between hospital bills and doctor charges, we're getting close to $3k OOP. Is this average? High? Low?

The rub is that neither of us met our deductibles, which are relatively low, prior to his birth (he's now on my plan), so that is a factor. I guess I just assumed we'd be looking at a few hundred bucks and insurance would cover the rest.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Each of your plans should have Summary of Coverage documents that spell out exactly what costs you are responsible for. It should look like this:

health-benefit-sheet.gif
 
We were 3k to 4k for both our kids. Crib midgets are expensive!
 
Congratulations though! But it only gets more expensive.
 
We had great coverage, our son hit the yearly max out of pocket, which was $2500. Actual hospital bill was $72k (15 days NICU).
Our daughter cost us $0, my wife had her own coverage and was on mine as secondary.
 
Paid nothing except for the cost of the suite upgrade we got for a night, which we knew was out of pocket, and the cost of some optional test (a couple hundred) that we were told in advance usually isn't covered. I kept expecting a bill to arrive, but it never did.
 
Yes. 100%. Just expensive. Feel like I'm working just for diapers and food right now for my girls. Pretty soon that will be shoes and clothes. then college and weddings. A day might come when I get to use money I earn to buy something I want, but it is not this day. But I'm ok with that. Nothing beats being a dad. Nothing makes getting through a tough day of work easier than 2 toddlers so excited to see you every day.
 
Our total bill for a planned natural birth turned emergency C-section was just a hair under 30k. Out of pocket we paid $1500, and she went on my very good (hospital) insurance as soon as she was born.

To echo what SDeacz said, they're definitely worth it. Intentional or not, they become the center of your world, although daycare is stupid expensive.
 
I can’t remember exactly what we paid but that sounds about right. We bumped up our plan before getting pregnant this time - really gotta get the baby out before the deductible resets, though.
 
the good news is that american babies are worth a ton so you could always sell it if the bill is too high and maybe even come out with a nice little profit!
 
Appreciate the responses. Good to know what we've seen so far isn't completely out of whack.
 
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